xv, 590 pages : 24 cm

"This book analyzes how the politics of memory and history affected representations of the World War II internment of Japanese Americans during the last six decades. It compares attempts by government officials, internees, academics, and activists to control interpretations of internment causes and consequences in congressional hearings, court proceedings, scholarship, popular literature, ethnic community events, monuments, museums, films, and Web sites. Initial accounts celebrated internee loyalty, military patriotism, postwar assimilation, and "model minority" success. Later histories emphasized racist "concentration camps," protests inside the camps, and continued suffering within the community."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 529-568) and index

Introduction : Historians, objectivity, and the politics of knowledge production -- The history of "military necessity" and the justification for internment -- Dillon S. Myer and the WRA's history of "relocation, reintegration, and rehabilitation" -- "We pledge our fullest cooperation" : a history of loyalty and patriotism in the Japanese American Citizens League -- The history of "helpful" administrative advisers and "objective" researchers within the camps -- The resurrection of the history of internment in the 1960s and 1970s -- America's "concentration camps" : revisionist histories and activism in the 1960s and 1970s -- "Three strands woven into a single fabric" : Japanese American history and the struggle to obtain redress -- Multiple histories of internment and the passage of redress legislation -- Representations of internment in art and media, and the lessons of history -- Epilogue : The legacy of Japanese American internment and redress

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